Feature

  1. Earth

    New Concerns about Phthalates

    Boys may face an eventual reproductive risk from exposure to some of the ingredients that go into many common plastics, cosmetics, and medical supplies.

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  2. Earth

    Oceans Aswirl

    Whirls of ocean water up to hundreds of kilometers across create biological oases, transport heat from tropical climes to cooler latitudes, and affect everything from offshore oil platforms to long-distance yacht races.

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  3. Math

    If It Looks Like a Sphere…

    A Russian mathematician has proposed a proof of the Poincaré conjecture, a question about the shapes of three-dimensional spaces.

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  4. Chemistry

    Danger Detection

    Analytical chemists are exploring ways to improve chemical and biological weapons detection.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Herbal Lottery

    Many herbal-product makers aren't maintaining adequate quality control, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to propose rules that mandate good manufacturing practices.

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  6. Physics

    Reflections on Art

    By dissecting famous paintings in new ways, scientists are testing the veracity of artist David Hockney's controversial theory that some masters of Renaissance art secretly used optical projection devices.

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  7. Gut Check

    The normal microbial inhabitants of our intestines do a lot for their host.

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  8. Repeat After Me

    New research suggests that the ability to infer the thoughts and feelings of others grows out of a capacity for imitation exhibited by human infants and perhaps by other animals, as well.

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  9. Astronomy

    Gorgeous Gas

    Beyond their undeniable beauty, images of nearby, starlit clouds of gas and dust, known as HeII nebulae, may reveal properties of the very first stars in the universe.

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  10. Earth

    Patterns from Nowhere

    Scientists are developing geophysical models that may explain the polygonal patterns that appear in and on the ground in remote regions of the Arctic, Antarctica, and possibly the surface of Mars.

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  11. Chemistry

    Plastic Electric

    Scientists are finding new ways to improve the molecular order and electrical conductivity of a commercially important conducting plastic.

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  12. Earth

    The Fires Below

    Underground coal fires help shape the landscape on many scales and in many ways, some transient and some long-lasting.

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